SOUTH CAROLINA. 



6G9 



Deaf, Dumb, and Blind admitted during the 

 year fifty-six pupils. 



The Penitentiary reports show a decrease of 

 thirty-five. The death rate was less than two 

 per cent. Important improvements haveheen 

 made in the buildings and walls. The Peni- 

 tentiary farms have been successful, the esti- 

 mated clear profits being between $9,000 and 

 $10,000. 



In the Department of Agriculture the offices 

 of Phosphate Inspector and Phosphate Agent 

 have been abolished, and the duties transferred 

 to a special assistant of the Agricultural Bureau. 

 The amount of phosphate rock mined and 

 shipped, upon which the State receives a royal- 

 ty of $1 per ton, was 53,054 tons. According 

 to the report of the Fish Commission, 30,000 

 California salmon, 15,000 landlocked salm- 

 on, 2,230,000 shad, and 3,500 California trout 

 have been distributed in the waters of the 

 State. 



The passage of the stock law has resulted in 

 bringing under cultivation thousands of acres 

 which were almost valueless for want of tim- 

 ber for fencing them. The report of the Land 

 Commission estimates the lands unsold at 56,- 

 371 acres; total value, $158,076.04; balance of 

 purchase-money due, $47,493.87. 



The report of the Superintendent of the 

 Lunatic Asylum shows that at the beginning 

 of the year there were 375 patients 181 males 

 and 184 females. Of these 252 were white, 

 and 123 colored patients. During the year 166 

 were admitted, making the whole number 

 treated 541; of this number 31 recovered, 3 

 escaped, 55 died, and 31 were released, leaving 

 420 patients in the asylum 268 white and 152 

 colored. Of this number 29 were paying pa- 

 tients. The expenses have been less than the 

 appropriation, leaving a balance of $7,601, 

 which has bean transferred to the building 

 fund. The receipts for the year were $94,- 

 355.08, and the disbursements $86,753.90. A 

 farm of about fifty acres has been purchased. 

 A lodge has been erected for the colored 

 women, with wards to accommodate forty 

 patients. It is already full, and an extension 

 has been put under contract. The gross earn- 

 ings of all the railroads in the State in 1879 

 were $4,008,802.87; the expenses were $3,- 

 098,346.79; net earnings, $910,456.08; the 

 gross earnings in 1880 amounted to $4,943,- 

 074.39 ; expenses, $3,585,766.61 ; net earnings, 

 $1,357,307.78; increase of gross earnings, 

 $934,271.52; increase of expenses, $488,419.82; 

 increase in net earnings, $446,851.70, or nearly 

 50 per cent. 



The mineral wealth of the State is not yet 

 appreciated. Gold, iron, lead, manganese, bis- 

 muth, plumbago, soapstone, coal, black-lead, 

 and asbestus are to be found in abundance, and 

 granite of the finest grain, as well as burr-stone 

 and materials for pottery and porcelain. 



The total production of the phosphate rock 

 since its discovery in 1866 amounts to 1,500,- 

 000 tons, worth $9,000,000. The accessible de- 



posits cover 10,000 acres, estimated to contain 

 8,000,000 tons of rock, worth at present prices 

 $30,000,000. The factories for the manufac- 

 ture of this fertilizer have a capital of between 

 $600,000 and $800,000. 



The port of Charleston during the year was 

 visited by 1,090 vessels 249 foreign and 841 

 domestic. In the fleet were 31 foreign steam- 

 ships which came for cotton cargoes. The 

 total tonnage was 600,059 127,095 foreign, 

 and 472,964 domestic, not including vessels of 

 under 100 tons burden. 



At no time since the war has South Carolina 

 been so prosperous. Lands have slowly but 

 steadily improved in value. The people are 

 generally out of debt, and have learned to 

 work successfully under the new system. 

 There are seventeen cotton-factories in oper- 

 ation, with 95,938 spindles and 1,933 looms, 

 producing 101,338 yards of cloth and 17,438 

 pounds of yarn, and consuming 54,394 pounds of 

 cotton each working day. They employ 2,612 

 operatives, who support 8,143 persons. The 

 capital employed amounted to $2,293,600, on 

 which the profits are from 18 to 50 per cent, 

 per annum. The water-power unutilized in 

 the middle and upper counties of the State is 

 enough to turn the spindles of all the cotton- 

 mills in the United States. 



The sea-islands of South Carolina, which 

 were apparently ruined through the war, are 

 so improved by the new system of subsoil 

 drainage and heavy manuring that their land 

 ranges in value from $40 to $200 an acre. A 

 net profit of $100 an acre on an expenditure 

 of $80 for fertilizers, labor, and ginning was 

 realized by a planter on James Island, near 

 Charleston. The State possesses an almost in- 

 exhaustible supply of pine, hickory, walnut, 

 maple, cedar, poplar, and other timber. Cot- 

 ton is grown in every part of the State. The 

 cultivation of South Carolina rice, which is 

 preferred in the markets to any other sort, is 

 exceedingly profitable. Grain can be produced 

 in abundance, and every variety is cultivated, 

 though the yield is usually small, owing to im- 

 perfect tillage. Tobacco, sorghum, hemp, flax, 

 indigo, and hops have become common crops. 

 Good wine is made in some of the counties. 

 The culture of fruits and vegetables for mar- 

 ket is extending rapidly. Governor Hagood, in 

 his inaugural address, dwelt upon the improved 

 condition of agriculture in the State, attributa- 

 ble to the improved methods of culture and to 

 the hopeful energy and increased thrift of all 

 classes of the people. One field of 350 acres 

 had yielded for two years 350 bales of cotton. 

 Over a large area of the same county the crops 

 upon the uplands were as luxuriant as upon the 

 finest alluvial soil, and these uplands were of 

 the character usual throughout the middle belt 

 of the State, which in their unimproved con- 

 dition would require three or more acres to 

 produce a bale. Much more attention is paid to 

 live-stock by the farmers, and the results in small 

 grains are four or five times as great as were for- 



